Do the important things first and your home will sell quickly. If you don't, it may sit and become stigmatized.

Do the important things first and your home will sell quickly. If you decide to gamble with the listing, hoping to attract a clueless buyer, you may end up with a house that is stigmatized and invisible. One of the things I do when I take a listing is inspect the property from top to bottom. As a broker and a contractor, I have a good eye for things that keep properties on the market too long.

I've been through enough home inspections to know what catches an inspector's eye and what doesn't. Beyond that, I've sold enough homes to know what catches a buyer's eye and what doesn't. If a seller lets regular maintenance go too long, it will show up in the showings and a home inspection. Buyers do not like to buy other people's problems. If they are willing to make an offer on a property that has issues, there is a pretty good chance the offer will be low.

Your home will sell quickly if you do some simple things.

I've never had a listing linger where the sellers followed sound advice, but I've had some linger endlessly when sellers took a wait and see approach to listing the home. That basically translates to "maybe the buyers won't notice or won't care" about certain issues. They will notice and they will care.

This year, I had one house get two showing requests in the first 10 minutes of listing it, and one of those buyers bought it for full price. Why wouldn't he? The sellers had the house ready. It was an older home, but they put some wonderful personal touches on it to enhance its charm, and they fixed everything, painted what needed to be painted and they took away every objection a buyer would have.

In another case, the seller wanted to wait and see if someone would throw an offer at a house that was dated, was plain vanilla with a tutti-frutti price and was missing appliances. I tried to get him to lower the price to match the condition. He refused. The home received a few low-ball offers over the first few months I had it listed, but the seller was sure someone would come along and buy it in spite of those issues. They didn't.

Throughout the year, I tried to get the seller to make some changes, but he refused. At the end of the listing period, I refused to re-list and the seller found another agent. He ultimately lost a lot of money off of the first list price and the first offers. If he had done the important things first, and that can be simple things like, paint, replace carpet, make sure everything is working and serviced. He would have likely sold quickly and for a better price. He ultimately lost a lot of money playing the naive-buyer lottery.

Do an assessment of your home to help your home sell quickly.

Do the important stuff first. Make sure everything is in working order. That will mean all appliances and systems are working, paint if needed, change or clean the carpets, make sure all light fixtures have working bulbs in them, make sure everything is clean and the house is move-in ready and your house will sell quickly. If you don't, a potential buyer will walk through your home with an invisible calculator running to decide how much he/she will be taking off the price with an offer.

Your home is only worth what the market will bring. If you see a steady flow of low-ball offers, your home probably wasn't ready to be on the market. Do the important stuff first and your home will sell quickly. Trust me on this one, I've seen it work too many times to take a chance that someone will still make a good offer on a home that isn't ready for the market.

This post was originally posted at www.winchestervarealestate.com: Do the important things first and your home will sell quickly. If you don't, it may sit and become stigmatized. #mikecoopersellshomes, #cornerstonehomesales, #yourlocalrealestatesalespros, #yourneighborhoodrealtor.